Another cleaner thread!

[WorkerBee1425]

When we hired our cleaner 10 months ago, she went through exactly what she would do in the 3 hours a week we pay for. The first clean was great, but since then the quality has just gotten worse with some things we agreed on just not getting cleaned. She said there will be things she does on rotation but now she has started to leave early when ‘finished’ so those rotation pieces she would do are suddenly not part of the time we pay.

She has cancelled at least 4 times and tried to rearrange a few times (maybe not so bad in ten months?).

We pay £22 an hour and it just feels like a rip off at this point. I know good cleaners are hard to find, and overall she is okay and it makes my life easier but do I have the conversation or do I just put up with it or do I just look elsewhere?

£22 an hour! Blimey where do you live op? I’m retired and looking for a bit of extra money; I will do it for £10 an hour cash in hand.
No experience of being a paid cleaner but I have had my own property for 40 years and kept it clean with three children making a mess.
Sorry that’s not terribly helpful. Pull her up on it, the same way you would someone in the office not doing all of the tasks they are supposed to.

You either have to manage her or get rid and find someone else. £22 is pricey.

If you're going to.manage her, tell her you expect the full 3 hours and give her a full list of everything to be done with extras if she feels she's 'finished' the main stuff.
Send her this list every single time she's due to come.

We don’t live in a particularly expensive area! Cleaners are just hard to come by I think. I’m not against paying decent money, cleaning is always seen as low skilled and invisible labour and I think we should change that, but I do want the work done!

It feels strange to manage someone in this way. I know self employed people (outside of cleaning) and it feels as though there is usually pride and initiative in this space? As in, you are working for yourself so your reputation is your currency? I really don’t want to manage a cleaner- that’s another burden which was what the cleaner was supposed to get rid of! Maybe I just need to try being a bit firmer- I think I’m worried how they’ll react.

Yes, I know what you mean but I've had cleaners for over 30 years now and have learnt through bitter experience that that's what you have to do.

They're working in a relatively unskilled job for a reason and I've only had two (including our brilliant current cleaner) who haven't taken the piss the way your current one is.

Mostly they start off okay then start missing stuff and leaving early. So you either pull her up on it or find someone else. If it's hard to find another cleaner, it's worth managing her and see how that goes. You can be pleasant about it and say you value her work but point out the rate you're paying is a good one and you need the work done to her original standard.

Mine didn't do what she was meant to either. I let her come 3 times. I was cleaning after she had gone. I gave up, ghosted her, and do the cleaning myself.

Im now thinking of going back to doing it myself or for a while and then trialing someone else!

This is why I stopped bothering trying to find a cleaner - they all start off brilliantly then the quality just nosedives.

It’s frustrating!

I’ll give it a go! Try and manage it for a couple of weeks but then stop it if it’s not getting better

It's weird isn't it OP. Other people are perfectly happy to take the piss, but we find it awkward to tell them that we have noticed!

I would say something, and if she flounces off so be it! 'Dear cleaner, I notice the rotation pieces have not been cleaned for a while, please can make sure you remember to incluse them in your schedule'

On the other hand she may get her act together and go back to doing a good job.

I just didn't feel comfortable, as a grown woman in my own house, pulling up another grown woman about her poor performance. I guess I'm just not that way inclined hence my low salary and shying away from any progression to managing others, but in my own home to self-employed lady my own age? Just no.

I mean I could be a cleaner, make things clean, that's literally it. If they can't or won't do that then what words could magically make that happen?

I think the reason I let her come more than twice was to show her more than me that she just can't do the job. I thought about an agency because you can more easily pull them up, but what's the point?

I'm just rotating the cleaning jobs now and worked them into my routine.

This is exactly how I feel! You either take pride in your work as a self employed person or you don’t. You’re not my employee, I’m not your manager- you’ve advertised for the work and I don’t see why I should need to manage someone? It makes me uncomfortable!

That’s expensive . Not all cleaners behave this way. You can do better. Just start again with someone new.

It’s the going rate. I charge more and fully booked.

I've been a self employed cleaner for the last 4 years and I have always taken great pride in each job. I charge £16 ph which I know is different in each area but it does seem on the high side, however that's not what you're questioning.
I totally get that it's a difficult discussion to have but do not forget that you are paying for this service! The cleaner isn't doing it for free, you are the employer.
It of course depends on the cleaner but I've always said to my customers that they can always tell me to do more/less or to focus on other areas or indeed if I'm missing something, I think it's part of the cleaner & customer relationship and it's a shame that you don't have that with your cleaner (not your fault!). I'd be mortified if a customer was disappointed in my work (again, not a dig at you at all!).
If you're like me and don't like confrontation, perhaps leave a note on her next visit just along the lines of "thanks for coming today, is it ok to focus on such and such today please?" Then it takes the pressure off of you?
As for rearranging and cancelling, it's very annoying and actually the reason I'm now giving it up, my health isn't great and I've been rearranging appointments more & more so I feel like I can no longer be reliable and if I can't be perfect I don't wanna do it 😂
There is no shame in getting a new cleaner! Even if you say thanks but we can no longer afford the expense.
I hope at least a bit of that was helpful, I'm a talker! Best wishes

I have had this with my current cleaner. she waa excellent at start then some times it was as if she wasn't here at all. same as you found it hard to tell her even though I have people reporting into me at work and no issues telling them what to do to her 🙈 her days have changed also so she here sometimes when am physically in the office so last time I said to her on the days I'm in the office I am gone by half 6 then not home till 7. I like ti be able to come home to a clean house and as am in a rush in morning sometimes mugs or shoes are left out can yoi just put to one side or in dishwasher? also explained how relaxing it is when living room is tidy so hoovered properly including sofa - think she understood better then before as few times since all good

@WorkerBee1425 I've had cleaners for decades and this is a fairly typical pattern. I currently use a small local company and we've come to an arrangement whereby there are a few 'regular' girls who reliably do a decent job. They come in teams of two or three and as long as one of the regulars comes they do a decent enough job. Not amazing but comsistently enough to be a good help. I also leave a list of small extra jobs outside the basic clean if there is any time left. Any issues I deal with the company so depersonalises that part. For what you're paying you'd certainly get a company cleaner outside the big cities.

That is very expensive for a cleaner, if she is not doing as agreed get rid.

You are paying her by the hour yet she is leaving early! So, what, 2.5 hours work for the price of 3? That alone is taking the absolute piss. It’s not you being difficult to just say to her ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been leaving early, I’d prefer you stay for the full time please’. Who in their right mind would argue against doing the job they are paid for? And if she complains then get rid. She’ll probably say she’s done all the work in less time, in which case you can remind her that she is paid by the hour and that the rotational things are being missed and tell her she can find something else to for the rest of the time (or not rush through the rest of it!).
When she arrives you can ask her if she will also do D and E once she has finished A, B & C.
I know what you mean about not wanting to ‘manage’ her but she is forcing you into that position by taking the piss. If she she doesn’t want to be demeaned, then she shouldn’t demean herself by trying to con you.

I'm in a similar position, (although paying less than £22ph). She started off great and I was pleased with the standard of the clean but she seems to be cutting corners recently, leaving early or excuses why she can't come.

I had to clean my own house this week as she cancelled at short notice and it's really shown my how much she's been missing, a lot of the areas I cleaned were certainly more than a couple of weeks build up. E.g last time I asked her to give the banister an extra clean as it felt grubby and when I cleaned it this week the underside was covered in stains and build up, clearly over a number of months so she's wiping along the top quickly but not giving a thorough clean. Many examples of things like this I've only discovered when going to clean myself so on the surface it looks ok but when you get up close it's clearly not been cleaned properly in a while.

When we were on holiday she only stayed 45mins (ring door bell). Starting to feel like she's really taking the piss. Reluctant to change cleaner as a new one could be worse! Sometimes she does a good job and she has two little girls and I do like her as a person.

My parents cleaner is amazing -she was their cleaner, got cancer had to stop - recovered and picked up cleaning again

the last two took the piss. They were a pair, £40 for an hour (£20 each per hour). They did the bare minimum (eg not moving anything to clean under). The agreement was two bathrooms upstairs, downstairs loo, Hoover stairs and clean kitchen Then anytime left over, to make up the two hours, hoover bedrooms, Hoover rooms downstairs, mop hall floor (all things current cleaner on her own did/does)

they’d do bathrooms and not mop the floor or move anything in the bathroom to clean under eg the bottle of bubble bath. Not clean the shower edges - mould built up.

They’d clean the kitchen and move nothing (toaster, kettle etc - nothing heavy or unexpected in a kitchen). Wouldn’t clean the completely flat induction hob in case it got damaged, never mopped the floor or swept it.

Left after 30 to 40 minutes, doing nothing extra so Dad was being done 40 - 60 minutes a week he was paying for

dad kept in touch with old cleaner throughout her treatment and they had coffee and a chat regularly (both parents have had significant cancers too), messaging her supportive messages etc. Just being there for her

she came back to work very part time and Dad was able to get her back - even post breast cancer recovery she’s in a different league to the pair. It was with much relief we gave them notice (Dad paid them a month and told them not to come back)

Dad has agreed that if we ever have to let this one go, we’ll not put up with that crap again

oh current cleaner is £15 an hour and does everything to a high standard - everything gets moved and she even posh folds the loo roll ends 🥰. She getting a good Christmas bonus!

I use an agency - when they start loosing focus, I get another one. I don’t want to have to manage them, that’s what the agency does.

I might try this!